[texbirds] Anahuac to Texas City today, great white heron from the ferry

From: Joseph Kennedy <josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx>
To: 4 Texbirds Maillist <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2012 19:40:00 -0500
I got my only hawk for the day with a pre-sunrise red-tailed hawk at Cove
which is usually my first bird of the day too.

Got to Anahuac about 7 and had lots of ducks in the Oyster Bayou tract with
many fulvous whistling ducks and blue-winged teal. It is getting really
late for there to be large flocks of teal around and the number of
squealers around is the best in many years. A couple of male shovelers are
also lingering. Almost no shorebirds around and almost no habitat.

Bobwhites were out walking around at the corner of crossover road and the
gravel yard but no females again. Shortly after that about 30 trucks
arrived with the seismic workers and really cut down the number of birds
and opportunities to see birds. Several airboats out zooming around as well
as trucks. The crews are also down on Bolivar with airboats on Bob and Tuna
Roads. They really leave trails through the marsh.

Very few shorebirds were left in the rice fields except for one recently
flooded area just west of Anahuac East but they were doing aerial spraying
of the field and highway and I did not linger. I did find one good batch of
shorebirds with mosquitoes. Most were white-rumped sandpipers with a few
semipalmated and stilt sandpipers added in.

Rollover pass was fairly bare and Yacht Basin road had white-rumps. Tuna
had airboats as did Bob Road. Both Bob and Frenchman Road are very full
with no edge of any sort. The only lingering spotted sandpiper was on Bob
Road.

Very little out on Bolivar Flats but the weed covers much of the sand and
cuts off access to goodies. there is a lot of dead stuff in the piles to
add odors to a walk. You can smell the piles near the jetty out on the
highway.

I was watching people feed the gulls after the ferry left the Bolivar
landing and noticed a white heron heading across beside the boat. Watched
it and finally something clicked that something was a little different. Did
remember I had binoculars but not that I did have a camera. Turned out that
it was a great white heron. The bird angled off and headed toward the north
end of Pelican Island or the next island to the north where they tie up
barges. I did go out on the dike to see if it could be seen or had moved
there but had no luck.

On Pelican Island one tropical kingbird was sitting and the other across
the highway. No calling while I was there and no grackles either.
Mockingbirds are nesting in the same tree. A group of bronzed cowbirds were
in the A&M tract mulberry trees.

The texas city dike was generally birdless in regard to gulls and terns but
had a couple of sanderling flocks and ruddy turnstones were still working
the rocks.

A great day to be out and a day when all those with jobs should have called
in sick and gone birding. Where else can you see an avocet jumping up and
down on a plastic bag and a reddish egret taking a bath in water 2/3 of the
way up its neck. And pelicans.

-- 
Joseph C. Kennedy
on Buffalo Bayou in West Houston
Josephkennedy36@xxxxxxxxx
[texbirds] Anahuac to Texas City today, great white heron from the ferry

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